Hey guys.

I'm having difficulties as Terran when it comes to late games.
Doesn't matter if its TvP/TvZ/TvT.

I'm generally unsure in how to play. Take in mind that my highest rank has only been Platinum.


My problem is to keep up with the economy. It feels as if I'm always expanding to little.
An example would be that the Protoss sits at 5 bases while I'm at 3.

Do you have any advice in how to play late game? I'm more curious in when I expand into three/four bases - Which expansion should I take vs. certain matchup (Away from my opponent, or towards my opponent).
And how do you defend the occasional ling/zelot/dropp harass?

I've started to build a bunker by my mineral lines in TvT. It feels as it helps vs. medivac dropps unless they doom dropp me. - But it also feels like a waste of 100 mineral for bunker per mineral line as well as the 2-3 marines I put in there.




To my second question, if you don't mind.. - TvT...
I can't play TvT. I'm worthless at TvT. I think my win/ratio is around 25%.

I love playing Bio and would like to keep on playing it, even in TvT. - But how?
Anyone got some basic TvT advice for me?

This post was edited by Spetch on Dec 19 2013 01:23am

Best advice for this type of thing is studying a couple of pro games. Pay attention to what playstyle they are going with and when they add on infrastructure/production/expansions, after a few games you should get some type of estimation at what pace things need to (should) happen

Since you are scrubish metal leaguer you seem to be having problems with transitions and unit composition. Best tip is once again to watch and learn from the pros

Which expansions should you take:
usually depends on the game but most of the time you should expand on most maps towards the zerg player. Against protoss you should take the safest expansion avaible and versus terran safe is usually better unless the map focuses at 1-2 expanions that serve as good ground for map controll.

Defending vs ling harrassment is usually about structure placement, once again watch and learn from the pros how they organise their buildings. Alot of pros also use neat positions for Ie bunkers on their 3rd/4th expansion that can defend vs fairly large ling attacks. Most of the time it is reacting properly ( raising the wall ). Terran defense is easy, you are the one who is supposed to harrass the living shit out of zerg in ways david kim gets his erections. Later on you need turrets ( you want to time this with the creation of his mutalisks ). They should be placed 1-2 on your mineral lines as well as around your production a few, once again watching pro games teaches you alot about these things. Putting a mine or two at an exposed base is also a smart thing to do but can go shity since they can end up killing your own scv line. Vs terran/protoss its a bit more complicated since those 2 races aren't underpowerd crap and actually pose a threat.

Tvt is the reason most people don't play terran. Contrary to popular belief most of the time even pros don't actually know what they are doing in these matchups, just copy of their builds and pray.

I love playing Bio and would like to keep on playing it, even in TvT. - But how?
TVT with bio is in my opinion alot harder, you have to learn how to multitask better and outposition/maneuver the meching player. This means alot of drops, small skirmishes and outexpanding him, catching him unsieged and so on. Basically you get ahead of him by outplaying him.

Egentligen borde du manup och köra zerg, inte en sådana sliskig ras som terran/protoss

This post was edited by ownyaah on Dec 19 2013 01:56am

Haha

Well, I guess that's true.
I do look at a lot of streams/pro games. - But I never really pay to much attention to what they are actually doing. - I will most likely start doing that a bit more.
But I see what you mean, especially with TvT. I guess those small cost-effective trades are worth it in the end.

The problem I have is, that when I play people in Matchmaking I expect them to play as the pro gamers does (I know, stupid as hell and I should stop thinking that)
But what I mean with that is that I expect them to actually do something else than just building roaches/marines or whatever on one base and not expanding.

I'm generally starting to understand a lot of things though, despite my 'scrubish metal'- rank.
I can understand what is about to happen depending on Exp timing, gases, pylons etc..

The people you play have litterarly no idea what they themselves are doing, but once you get better at macro ( the most important thing at lower leagues ) you will start beating them simply by outproducing. Things like scouting/micro/ are important and proper ways to counter but usually the reason people are stuck in lower leagues is because of awful macro mechanics

This post was edited by ownyaah on Dec 19 2013 02:07am

Yes, I completely agreed.
The first time I hit platinum was because I learned how to spend my minerals and not sit at a 2k bank.

This post was edited by Spetch on Dec 19 2013 02:11am

add me and we can practice tvt!

Ladder is 90% p / z so it was allways my worst mu

Sending you a PM!
Cheers

watch how Koreans play-- it should rub off on u

Sia aka ownyaah had a few good points

First of all I'd suggest you to learn 1-1 build for each matchup and only do those builds till you get masters (or even further), no matter what
try to get a replay or just watch pros do that build and try to understand why is he doing what he is doing.
And well, most importantly you need to get a continous production and expand boldly most of the time
your macro should look like
1 base - 3 raxes 1 factory 1 starport
2 bases - 5 raxes 1 factory 1 starport
3 bases - 8 raxes 2 factories 1 starport
you need to adjust it of course according to what your opponent is making, for example if he goes colossus and he is getting plenty you can add a second starport to be able to produce enough vikings etc
Sia described tvz pretty well, you need to be on constant agression pumping out massive amounts of marines widowmines and medivacs and constantly attack with large waves of units, you need to get a decent marine split skill, but that can be practiced in the arcade game "marine split challenge" Important thing while being agressive, if you have a good amount of units, while you attack on one front, be sure that you send out 1-2 dropships with a handful of marines to other locations to make your zerg opponent multitask and possibly make his hold against your main push a lot weaker, or even if he holds the main front he'll lose a lot of resources to your drops

Well TvT is mostly about having balls and patience, a lot of people don't really understand the matchup, like sia said, but it's really not that complicated
on narrow maps you must get tanks next to your bio ( I'd more suggest making pure tank marine in this case, just get marauders only if he goes mech)
if you are playing marine tank or just bio, you must trade continously, try to attack at multiple locations, spread your units, attack in good concaves, get good upgrades, drop a lot, expand a lot
if you are playing against a mech player with bio, your priority is to not let him max out, you should be ahead in expansions, and try to trade the best you can
if you are playing mech vs mech, you need to go to make good trades, you should push to easily defensible locations near your opponent's base(s), and slowly push forward from that, drop hellbats, and expand behind it
remember, tanks sieged can hold back much larger armies than yours.
If you are playing mech vs bio, you should never take fights where you could lose major amounts of units, trade only little for a large portion of a bio player
max out, try to get as many bases as you can defend at once and try to go for skyterran as fast as you can (This applies to bio play too, get skyterran when you are safe)

tvp is utter shit, try to kill him midgame with massive amounts of bio
I'd suggest opening with a reaper expand.

Oh and I almost forget, if you get to the very lategame, don't really engage unless you must (just go around your opponent's army scaring him, with your army) until you have set up a few planetaries and turrets where you can fall back in case the engagement goes wrong, or just simply equal, it can really save you from zealot remaxes n such dumb shit

This post was edited by Cpt_Ghost on Dec 19 2013 06:16am

This is some really great advice.
Thanks a lot.